High-Performance Polymers meet Sustainability
“The world is facing unprecedented challenges that demand concrete actions. Together with our customers, we are making sustainability a priority in our strategy. Solvay’s innovation pipeline has been reshaped to respond to this growing need. By adopting an intelligent mix of the most advanced recycling technologies and bio-by-design molecules, we intend to build a portfolio of high-performance products that contribute to a sustainable future. Our goal is to double the sales of these products by 2025.”
At Solvay, we are committed to optimizing both internal and external resources.
The Challenge
High-performance polymers are essential to society. Their direct collection and recycling are challenging due to low production volumes. The extremely demanding conditions of their typical applications make any degradation of their properties unacceptable. So, how do they participate in a circular economy?
At Solvay Specialty Polymers, we adopt the Use - Leverage - Develop solution, creating value by upcycling molecules and additives derived from lower-performing polymers.
- Use raw materials from bio-renewable sources to develop and bring to market bio-by-design polymers with differentiated properties and a low carbon footprint. Use waste from our processes to regenerate useful feedstock.
- Leverage processes developed for the chemical recycling of high volume commodity plastics to source key monomers and introduce recycled content into our polymers
- Develop, where economically viable and validated by LCA (Life Cycle Assessment), mechanical recycling of pre-consumer and/or post-consumer waste that does not compromise performance. In doing this, we adopt different technologies according to the type of product that needs to be upcycled.
Challenge Accepted!
We do believe in Sustainability without Compromising Performance and we are committed to working on new bio-based and recycled-based products for use in a variety of different applications (Smart Devices, Automotive, Home Appliances, etc). Currently, we have developed 4 products serving this purpose.
The recycled carbon fiber used in these products is not classified as hazardous per GHS regulations and does not contain any SVHC above 0.1%.
